Traditional seating and bedding structures typically are constructed from a frame, a surface fabric for contact with the user, and some type of support member. Typical support members have included springs, webs, straps, or molded units (e.g. thick foam pads). Materials for construction of such support members have been steel, burlap, canvas, plastic and elastomeric strapping and synthetic textile materials. One such synthetic textile material is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,738 to Himelreich, Jr. the teaching of which are incorporated herein by reference.
As will be readily appreciated, the use of a multiplicity of components (i.e. covers and separate support materials) which must be attached to a frame structure gives rise to a relatively complicated assembly practice. Moreover, in a number of applications such as portable beds or wheel chairs which must be suitable to be folded and transported away for storage, it is undesirable to have thick support structures such as foam, springs, and the like as these impede portability and storage. In addition, in many applications including wheel chairs and temporary hospital beds, it is desirable for the overall structure to be easily and thoroughly cleaned without the possibility of retention of contaminating fluids such as blood, urine, and the like. At the same time, the users of such furniture in these environments must be provided with good support and a high degree of comfort generally associated with the more complicated spring and cushion configurations.
In order to reduce the number of components in seating structures and to reduce the bulk thereof, it has been proposed to provide thin profile seats, including thin seats using elastomer seat backing material. One such seating structure is disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,789 (incorporated by reference). In U.S. Pat. No. 2,251,318 to Blair et al., solid rubber tape or strips reinforced by fabric are stretched over a seating frame. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,614 to Abu-Isa et al., (incorporated by reference) a thin profile seat is disclosed in which a multiplicity of side by side elastomeric filaments made from a block copolymer of polytetramethylene terephthalate polyester and polytetramethylene ether are stretched across a vehicle seat frame. U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,554 to Abu-Isa et al. (incorporated by reference) discloses a thin profile seat in which elastomeric filaments like that of U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,614 are woven together to form a mat. The mat was prestretched to at least 5% elongation and attached to the seat frame. U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,089 to Abu-Isa et al. (incorporated by reference) discloses a seat assembly having an elastomeric filament suspension and a fabric cover. The filament suspension and the fabric cover are integrated by having the elastomeric filaments in the fabric knitted together to provide a low profile finished seat or backrest.
The present invention provides a textile structure suitable for use as a furniture support sling for applications such as wheel chairs, hospital waiting room chairs and portable beds which provides a high degree of comfort and performance. Such comfort and performance is achieved by combining woven and knitted fabric structures in a manner which provides for the stretch and recovery characteristics desirable for these applications. At the same time, the fabric may be cleaned of contaminating fluids and has a surface which may be transfer printed to yield a visually appealing appearance while nonetheless having a smooth feel which helps to minimize skin shear thereby adding to the overall comfort of the user. Accordingly, the present invention represents a useful advancement over the state of the art.